554 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



cc. Pileuni light gray passing gradually into the deeper gray of hindueck; gray 

 of tail decidedly lighter. (Hawaiian Islands.) 



Megalopterus minutus melanogenys (extraliniital).a 



hb. Foi'ehead with a distinct brownish gray or grayiah brown area on each side, 



adjoining the dark loral area, the latter dark sooty brown or sooty blackish, 



like checks. (Kermadec Islands.) Megalopterus ? (extraliniital). ^ 



MEGALOPTERUS MINUTUS ATLANTICUS c Mathews. 



CARIBBEAN WHITE-CAPPED NODDY. 



Adults (sexes alike). — General color plain deep sooty brown, 

 blackish brown, blackish fuscous or sooty black, passing, through 

 a lighter and grayer hue on hindneck, and neutral gray on nape, into 

 immaculate white or grayish white on pileum; lores and space imme- 

 diately above eyes black (in strong and abrupt contrast with white 

 of forehead and crown), the lower eyelid with a white streak; tail 

 and longer tail-coverts (both upper and lower) brownish gray (be- 

 tween mouse gray and deep quaker drab) ; Ijill black; iris dark brown; 

 legs and feet dusky brownish. 



Iramature. — "Forehead and crown white; lores white; neck and 

 nape sooty black, which throws the white crown into strong relief, 

 owing to the absence of any intermediate lead color; mantle, tail, and 

 under parts umber-brown, the primaries blackish."'^ 



Young. — "Forehead and anterior crown white; lores black; upper 

 parts generally umber-brown, with cinnamon borders to the wing- 

 coverts and secondaries; primaries blackish; under parts mouse- 

 brown. In an older bird the white is less pure, but extends farther back 

 on the crow^n, and the plumage has a slightly barred appearance." '^ 



Doivjiy young. — "Forehead and crown dull white, rest of the body 

 sooty black. "'^ 



a Anous melanogenys Gray, Gen. Birds, iii, 1846, 661, pi. 182; Stejneger, Proc. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus., :d, 1888, 94 (Niihau, Hawaiian Islands; crit.). — Megalopterus minutua 

 melanogenys Mathews, Birds Australia, ii, pt. 4, Nov. 1, 1912, 423 (Hawaiian group). — 

 Anous hawaiiensis Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, no. x, July 4, 1893, p. Ivii; 

 Ibis, 1893, 571 (Hawaiian Islands; coll. Tring Mus.); Ilenshaw, Birds Hawaiian Is., 

 1902, 125 (habits). — Micranous hawaiiensis Saunders, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxv; 

 1896, 148; Fisher (W. K.), Bull. U. S. Fish Com. for 1903, 16, pi. 3, figs. 9-11 (Laysan, 

 etc.; habits); Bryan, Occas. PapersB. P. B. Mus., iv, no. 2, 1908, 47 [137](MoIokai).— 

 M [icranous] hawaiic7isis Bryan, Key Birds Hawaiian Group, 1901, 9. 



Not having examined a specimen of Micranus diamesus, I am unable to include 

 that form in the key. The original description compares it with M. hawaiiensis 

 (=melanogenys) but at the same time says that it hasthe pileum "nearly pure white!" 



b I am unable to place this bird, of which two specimens have been examined. 

 They may be the young or immature of one of the known forms, but descriptions of 

 younger stages as given by Saunders and others do not at all apply to it. 



c Owing to absence of specimens, I am" unable to compare this form with M. m. 

 minutus. 



<i Saunders, (Jat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxv, 1896, 147. Since Saunders included all the 

 geograpliic forms or subspecies, except M. m. hawaiiensis {=melanogenys) under one 

 name and description, it may be that the descriptions quoted are from some other form 

 of the species. 



